Thank you, Matt! I always enjoy your humor and easy style of presenting historical information, which can keep those non-civil war buffs intrigued. Those of us who are civil war buffs, simply enjoy listening to you!
Ranger Matt is in the same league as Shelby Foote and Bob Ross when it comes to demonstrating and delivering their knowledge with just the right amount of humor.
I have missed all the battle walks or lectures you taped and presented. I hope once the virus is under control pictures are permitted as well as ranger lead walks that you will be putting up new programs for viewing.
This the second time I’ve seen This video on Vicksburg and I know I got more information from her today. Matt Atkinson is one of the best speakers was just the right amount of humor in my opinion. Thank you to someone for uploading the video
Glad I stop to view this lecture. Never knew that much about Vicksburg. Now I do, thanks to Mr. Atkinson. Hope to one day visit Gettysburg and maybe take in one of his lectures. JN
Matt Atkinson - Ranger extraordinaire: He leaves the folks laughing and intellectually enhanced, all the while ensuring that Yogi never, ever kept a Pic-a-Nic Basket!
If the Confederates had such top notch generals and soldiers why did they lose the American Civil War. Lee beaten at Antietam, Gettysburg, and Petersburg. Stonewall Jackson gunned down by his own men in May of 1863. Lost at Vicksburg, Jackson, Miss. Natchez, New Orleans, Mobile, etc. etc... Sherman beat the devil out of Hood and created very bad memories in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. By the way; Lee and his "army" kidnapped numerous African Americans living in Pennsylvania in 1863. The victims of Lees criminal conduct were sent into slavery in the South. Is there a list of the names of those victims of that Confederate criminal action?
Don’t blame Pemberton for losing Vicksburg. The blame lies with Joe Johnston for his lack of support and with Grant who whipped everyone he fought against.
Grant's strategy is a microcosm of the entire Union plan to win. He accepted that the Confederate big guns in Vicksburg could sink any transport sent down the river, but he realized that if overwhelmed with ships they could not sink them all -- the military concept of local superiority. Then he figured that to succeed, he only needed to commit to losing about 40% of his supply ships, a big cost but one the Union could afford. The Union could afford big losses. This is the same strategy he employed in the Overland Campaign a year later. He just kept sending the soldiers into the fight. The Union lost a lot of men, particularly at Cold Harbor, but they had the men to lose. The Confederacy didn't.
